This is interesting:
Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) is considering accepting Obamacare's Medicaid expansion in his state via executive order, his office confirmed to TPM, after the state legislature stymied his efforts earlier this year.
The possibility was first reported by the Columbus Dispatch. “We continue to explore all our options and just want to get this done," Kasich spokesman Robert Nichols told TPM in an email Wednesday.
He picked a fine time to go against the grain of his national party, now didn't he.
Might be a good idea for Obama to point this out to his "colleagues" on the right.
But how would it work?
Kasich would expand Medicaid eligiblity to 133 percent of the federal poverty level, as Obamacare prescribes, via an executive order. He would then, on Oct. 21, ask a seven-member legislative-spending oversight panel for the authority to spend the money that the federal government would provide the state to pay for the expansion.
But what about the
other 26 states who rejected the Medicaid expansion, you ask?
One of the most contentious aspects of the Affordable Care Act — aside from its existence — is Medicaid expansion. That is, whether or not states choose to accept federal funding to expand Medicaid coverage in 2014 to include more low-income people who previously earned too much to qualify for Medicaid yet still couldn't afford to pay for health insurance.
However, a new report released Monday says that Medicaid enrollment and spending are going to rise in the next fiscal year whether the ACA’s detractors like it or not.
That’s partially due to the 24 states, and the District of Columbia, that have opted to expand Medicaid coverage to include people with incomes up to 138 percent of the federal poverty line, or around $15,856 a year for an individual.
But Medicaid enrollment will expand by an average of 8.8 percent across all states in fiscal year 2014 — 11.8 percent in the states that do expand Medicaid and 5.3 percent in the states that don't, according to the report, in which the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured and consulting firm Health Management Associates surveyed Medicaid providers in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
How long before the Tea Party gets to him?
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